Pausing in All My Affairs

Dear reader, with your blessing, we would like to continue our discussion of the pause.

First, the most recent blog: “When I sobered up and had a first small spiritual awakening, I followed Bill’s advice on practicing Step Three … I learned to pause before reacting…. I could stop, recall, and consider. When confronted with the first drink, a pause permitted me to consider the wreckage of past drinking episodes and remember that it started with the first drink.”

The pause was part of the formula that saved my life. It lifted my desire to drink, which was huge.

But it did not stop there; I learned to pause in other areas of my life to apply this lesson to all my affairs. I learned that a pause works in all situations and at all times.

Pausing contributed to the lifting of the desire to drink; it allowed me to remember, with sufficient force, the results of the last drinking binge. Pausing allowed me to consider and think. Pausing allowed me to remember, think, and respond rather than react.

Pausing in other areas of my life allowed this, and more: When I paused in other areas, my attitudes adjusted, my perceptions changed, and I calmed down — that trifecta changed everything, physical, emotional, and spiritual.

· Physical changes: My facial muscles eased, my vocal cords modulated, and my posture relaxed.

· Emotional changes: I became calm; trust was easier.

· Spiritual changes: I had moments of serenity.

With these changes, meetings go better, conversations go better, decisions go better, and I am better. Whoever is across from me, whatever I am doing, with a pause, life is better.

We come to the Program and learn to pause and learn the benefits of this simple gap, first in drinking and then in all our affairs.